JPost – Iranian police have set up a special unit to monitor Web sites and fight Internet crimes, in a possible attack on the opposition, which relies on that medium to broadcast its message, local newspapers reported Saturday.

Police Colonel Mehrdad Omidi, who heads the Internet crime unit, said the unit will fight “insults and the spreading of lies,” terms widely used by the judiciary to describe opposition activities.

“Given the spread of Internet use, police must confront crimes taking place in the Web atmosphere,” he said. “A special committee has been set up to monitor the Internet and deal with crimes … such as fraud … insults and the spreading of lies.” […]

Read more here …

The SEC and Department of Homeland Security are saying we need a web backup plan in the event the H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic forces people to stay in their homes to use computers even more than usual for work or play.

Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth….Private Internet providers might need government authorization to block popular websites, it said, or to reduce residential transmission speeds to make way for commerce.  http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2620750120091026?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Are politician looking craft new ways to get more control on the last free media frontier we have? We believe it is essential that the Internet remain unrestricted with an open platform. 365 days a year, 24/7.  President Obama on the other hand has not been quiet about pushing for Internet legislation.

The government wants to make sure everyone has access to the Internet and have set aside $7.2 billion in stimulus dollars for construction.http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Net-Neutrality-enforcement-may-reach-into-your-computer Again with the stimulus dollars.  Private investment and the private sector is what has spurned it’s growth.  As we have been witness to banks and car companies who accept bailout funds, they also accept government control and regulations. 

Last week the FCC begin consideration of the rules that would protect and promote open broadband pipes to the Internet. Over the next several months, an official rule making proceeding will take place, along with public workshops and technical advisory discussions, allowing everyone to provide feedback before the Commission adopts a final set of rules.  The proposed rules can be found here as a pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-93A1.pdf  We found it interesting that on p. 97  the document quotes Thomas Jefferson, “The course of history shows that as the government grows, liberty decreases.”

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam showed in a joint blog post that stakeholders can work together with mutual respect to find common ground, even as we acknowledge and defend important policy differences.  http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/10/finding-common-ground-on-open-internet.html

One significant issue, is that the government apparently uses the same Internet protocols and the same operating systems as the private sector, making cyber security a universal problem as opposed to a governmental problem.  Hackers may find a greater payload in targeting critical infrastructure such as power grids, financial or communication networks or air traffic control systems than in attacking the CIA or the Pentagon.  An attack by an adversary nation, much less a cyber extortionist or terrorist, is not so far-fetched. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-zirin14-2009oct14,0,603775.story 

The federally funded Next Generation Internet (NGI) project (http://www.ngi.gov/) exists parallel to and complementary with Internet2, http://www.internet2.edu/ We have trouble believing that America’s nuclear weapons arsenal operate on the standard net. Internet2 is not available to the general public, even though our taxpayer dollars support it.  More about that here http://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/internet-censorship-shocking-treatment-of-taxpayer/ The speed of information-sharing network on Internet2 is now 100 Gbit!

Thomas has the draft of the Rockefeller Cybersecurity Act S 773 here,  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.773.  It  gives the president powers to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security.”  More of our previous thoughts here http://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/obama-internet-controcybersecurity/

The proposed rules claim that Cisco’s built Internet routers have over 28.1 million lines of code- does anyone realistically foresee the government being able to regulated something so large?  Are attacks of the Swine Flu more common than cyber security breaches?  We we do know that the nation has done a pretty miserable job coordinating it’s response to past emergencies as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, the financial bailouts, and now the H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic.  If big brother takes over the Internet, the last bastion of freedom of speech in what is left of our democracy, could be gone.

photo props to Bikes Over Baghdad http://bkachinsky.transworld.net/,

Open wide, say ahhh and check out these posts on the A/H1N1 Swine Flu from Ahrcanum, where the conspiracy spreads as fast as the virus itself.  http://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/swine-flu-report/

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Building an acceptable use policy for blogging can be one of the tougher jobs for a company’s human resources and internal security divisions to develop. Blogging is a rapidly growing mode of communication that provides readers with material on everything from the day-to-day comments of authors, movie stars, characters on soap operas to hard-hitting news articles and columns. The growth of blogging has given rise to a multitude of programs and tools designed to help everyone from the personal blogger to corporate users.

But how does blogging affect an organization’s Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP)? In order to address blogging accurately in an AUP, you must first define what constitutes a blog. The word “blog” is actually a shortened version of “web log” and is similar to a message board in that one can post thoughts and opinions to be read by others. A blog can be viewed by the public or accessible only via password depending on how the owners have set it up. Blogs can provide in-depth information about specific topics or they can be a place for writers to vent their feelings, but their ultimate goal is to bring readers together and then encourage interaction among them.

Blogging can be a harmless and interesting way to communicate with like-minded others but, like any unmanaged activity, the opportunity for abuse is always there. If an organization’s AUP addresses their Instant Messaging, Peer-to-Peer, email and other Web-based communications, they need to consider blogging as an important technology to include. Organizations should decide of they want their employees to be able to read blogs or post to them as part of an overall communications policy.

What are the ramifications of no AUP where blogs are concerned? The rapid growth rate of blogs in the country means that entire services like MyFamily.com and MyPlace.com are hosting communities of bloggers. A criminal utilized personal data posted in some blogs to stalk and attack young high-school girls.

Employees that post their identities and information to a response on a blog can influence decisions. For example, if an employee of a major computer corporation responded to a technical blog with advice about avoiding a new product line because of a lot of known ‘bugs’ the company is leaving itself open to legal exposure. Corporations require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements for a reason, the threat of exposure where company confidential information and intellectual property is concerned could have devastating financial consequences.

This is only one example, there are many others. If a person severely disagrees with the content of a blog and starts what is known as a ‘flame’ war with the blogger through the comments section, the corporation may be held liable for the harassment if the employee is posting the responses through the corporation’s computers. What happens on company computers, whether permissible or not, is the responsibility of the company. They are considered legally culpable.

There are legal and financial reasons to be very clear in the AUP with regards to blogging. Some corporations, although only a small percentage, employ software that screens where and how an employee can browse the web. If there are filters preventing an employee from viewing a pornographic website, then there can be filters that prevent the viewing of political or day trading blogs. Blogs that focus on financial and business issues are growing more popular every day. These blogs may be a source of entertainment and information, but it is up to the corporation to decide the level of involvement that an employee may have.

It’s worth mentioning that anonymous guests can read most blogs, although they may not be able to post comments or responses. Blogs can be enormous resources for students, educators and other individuals for discussion, debate and the sharing of experiences. However, they need to be controlled and monitored. Blogs are an excellent marketing tool, hooking visitors into the site by providing them with financial advice or credit building tips, for example. The marketing a blog can provide can translate into tens of thousands of hits a day for a site. It’s also important for some companies to get their message out there; blogs can put a human face on a company that seems only to be a corporate entity. That human face can improve customer relations, invite consumer contact and increase company visibility. However, employees should be educated about the type of information they are allowed to post if they are allowed to respond.

Companies that maintain their own blogs should be particularly attuned to the commentary they generate. Blogging is a new frontier for the corporate world, but as with many prior innovations, they are quickly taking advantage of it. Security, awareness and education will help corporations, employees and even their families from suffering negative experiences while blogging, reading blogs or responding to a blog on the Internet.

With a significant increase of low-life’s’ traversing the “new” frontier of cybercrime, the Federal Government has proposed several legislation’s granting the RCMP with extensive powers to eavesdrop; Matrix style. As reported in the Vancouver Sun Police would be allowed to freely snoop, monitor and view a number of internet based communication systems (eg. e-mails, facebook, instant messaging) for signs of suspicious activity and, hopefully, prevent many offenses stemming from those sources.

This is controversial in several ways. Obviously privacy is a huge issue here. Many would believe that the proposed legislations conflict with several of our fundamental rights. Cited in the article is Canada’s Commissioner of Privacy stating that this would be effectively giving police, and government too much access to the personal information of Canadians. The commissioner also feels that the government has not yet produced enough evidence to favor the launch of such programs or monitoring systems.

I thought, and apparently was wrong, that internet monitoring was common practice. As I read through the above article, I discovered that it does occur, however authorization from a higher source is required. A warrant of sorts I guess. Also, internet providers, I’m assuming web sites as well, are not permitted to co-operate with investigations. If the RCMP at this time has the ability to eavesdrop, monitor and investigate suspicious internet activity already, perhaps this proposed legislation is not valid nor required. It is not as if the technology isn’t readily available today, it is just a matter of convenience and, I feel, an excuse to perhaps gain more power over the lives of Canadians.

- A. Murata

From: www.glocalwriters.com

Blogging is a new frontier for the corporate world and requires security, awareness and education considerations in a corporations acceptable use policy.

Building an acceptable use policy for blogging can be one of the tougher jobs for a company’s human resources and internal security divisions to develop. Blogging is a rapidly growing mode of communication that provides readers with material on everything from the day-to-day comments of authors, movie stars, characters on soap operas to hard-hitting news articles and columns. The growth of blogging has given rise to a multitude of programs and tools designed to help everyone from the personal blogger to corporate users.

But how does blogging affect an organization’s Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP)? In order to address blogging accurately in an AUP, you must first define what constitutes a blog. The word “blog” is actually a shortened version of “web log” and is similar to a message board in that one can post thoughts and opinions to be read by others. A blog can be viewed by the public or accessible only via password depending on how the owners have set it up. Blogs can provide in-depth information about specific topics or they can be a place for writers to vent their feelings, but their ultimate goal is to bring readers together and then encourage interaction among them.

Blogging can be a harmless and interesting way to communicate with like-minded others but, like any unmanaged activity, the opportunity for abuse is always there. If an organization’s AUP addresses their Instant Messaging, Peer-to-Peer, email and other Web-based communications, they need to consider blogging as an important technology to include. Organizations should decide of they want their employees to be able to read blogs or post to them as part of an overall communications policy.

What are the ramifications of no AUP where blogs are concerned? The rapid growth rate of blogs in the country means that entire services like MyFamily.com and MyPlace.com are hosting communities of bloggers. A criminal utilized personal data posted in some blogs to stalk and attack young high-school girls.

Employees that post their identities and information to a response on a blog can influence decisions. For example, if an employee of a major computer corporation responded to a technical blog with advice about avoiding a new product line because of a lot of known ‘bugs’ the company is leaving itself open to legal exposure. Corporations require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements for a reason, the threat of exposure where company confidential information and intellectual property is concerned could have devastating financial consequences.

This is only one example, there are many others. If a person severely disagrees with the content of a blog and starts what is known as a ‘flame’ war with the blogger through the comments section, the corporation may be held liable for the harassment if the employee is posting the responses through the corporation’s computers. What happens on company computers, whether permissible or not, is the responsibility of the company. They are considered legally culpable.

There are legal and financial reasons to be very clear in the AUP with regards to blogging. Some corporations, although only a small percentage, employ software that screens where and how an employee can browse the web. If there are filters preventing an employee from viewing a pornographic website, then there can be filters that prevent the viewing of political or day trading blogs. Blogs that focus on financial and business issues are growing more popular every day. These blogs may be a source of entertainment and information, but it is up to the corporation to decide the level of involvement that an employee may have.

It’s worth mentioning that anonymous guests can read most blogs, although they may not be able to post comments or responses. Blogs can be enormous resources for students, educators and other individuals for discussion, debate and the sharing of experiences. However, they need to be controlled and monitored. Blogs are an excellent marketing tool, hooking visitors into the site by providing them with financial advice or credit building tips, for example. The marketing a blog can provide can translate into tens of thousands of hits a day for a site. It’s also important for some companies to get their message out there; blogs can put a human face on a company that seems only to be a corporate entity. That human face can improve customer relations, invite consumer contact and increase company visibility. However, employees should be educated about the type of information they are allowed to post if they are allowed to respond.

Companies that maintain their own blogs should be particularly attuned to the commentary they generate. Blogging is a new frontier for the corporate world, but as with many prior innovations, they are quickly taking advantage of it. Security, awareness and education will help corporations, employees and even their families from suffering negative experiences while blogging, reading blogs or responding to a blog on the Internet.

Get Paid To Write

With more change you can believe in; President Obama and his administration has taken over banks, insurance companies, portions of the automobile industry and continues to set his eyes on controlling the private sector of the Internet. 

Back in April 09,”Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) today announced the introduction of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation to address our nation’s vulnerability to cyber crime, global cyber espionage, and cyber attacks that could potentially cripple the United States’ critical infrastructure.http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=bb7223ef-1d78-4de4-b1d5-4cf54fc38662

The first draft, pdf http://cdt.org/security/CYBERSEC4.pdf has apparently gone through some revisions, but continues to give the president powers to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security.”  The new working draft of the Rockefeller/Cybersecurity Act / S.773  can be found here http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s.00773:

I wonder what the definition of a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency is?  Would Obama decide that too many blogs or news stories that are in disagreement with his policies requires a shut down?

The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president.

The bill also gives the Secretary of Commerce “access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.”  Translated, this the government can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws.  How special that our Constitutional Harvard Law Graduate of a President continues to erode our Constitution and freedom of speech.  What about Constitutional protection against searches without cause?

Granted, cybersecurity threats are real and we need to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure.  A little law from the 1980’s- The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)  requires law enforcement seek a warrant before tapping in to data transmissions between computers.  To whom does Obama answer? The Internet Security Czar?  ROLF. 

In conspiracy land, Obama could make use of Rep. Linda T. Sanchez bill http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1966 pending that says, “`Sec. 881. Cyberbullying. (a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned” ……. I am having emotional distress at the possibility of government restricting information!  Is the White House distressed because people disagree with the Health Insurance reform bill? 

With the coming of Internet 2, 3, 4, 5 etc we are already restricted. The federally funded Next Generation Internet (NGI) project (http://www.ngi.gov/) exists parallel to and complementary with Internet2 that is filled with bits of information that the common Internet user does not have access to even though our tax dollars fund it. I’m no expert, but wouldn’t it make sense to take critical networks to another level?

Melissa Hathaway, the White House’s last acting cybersecurity czar jumped ship after her recommendations were made. She, “ figured out that what the government can do to secure cyberspace is … nothing. Neither the computer networks nor human organizations cited in the official definition of cyberspace in Hathaway’s report were designed for top-down regulation. Federal oversight works for airports, but not for the Internet. In cyberspace, the best thing the government can do is what Hathaway just did: get out of the way.  http://venturebeat.com/2009/08/04/cybersecurity-czar-has-the-right-idea-give-up-on-centralized-security/

From the White House earlier this month,”we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov. sourced at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/.  The Privacy Act of 1974 courtesy of  Nixon’s Watergate scandal prohibits any federal agency from maintaining records on individuals exercising their right to free speech but there is also a statute that requires the White House to retain all communications that it receives. More on this at http://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/white-house-fishy-information-legal-in-cyberwar/

The conundrum boils down to one more thing the government seeks to control.  At least the premise of the Fairness Doctrine for the time being is on the shelf. 

 From the folks at CBS NEWS http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/28/taking_liberties/entry5270834.shtml who talked to Jena Longo, deputy communications director for the Senate Commerce committee, on the phone. She sent me e-mail with this statement:

The President of the United States has always had the Constitutional authority, and duty, to protect the American people and direct the national response to any emergency that threatens the security and safety of the United States. The Rockefeller-Snowe Cybersecurity bill makes it clear that the President’s authority includes securing our national cyber infrastructure from attack. The section of the bill that addresses this issue, applies specifically to the national response to a severe attack or natural disaster. This particular legislative language is based on longstanding statutory authorities for wartime use of communications networks. To be very clear, the Rockefeller-Snowe bill will not empower a “government shut down or takeover of the internet” and any suggestion otherwise is misleading and false. The purpose of this language is to clarify how the President directs the public-private response (emphasis mine) to a crisis, secure our economy and safeguard our financial networks, protect the American people, their privacy and civil liberties, and coordinate the government’s response.

“Free speech goes right to the very heart of what it is I talk about all the time – blogging. I believe that bloggers form an army of citizen reporters. Not all bloggers get it right. Some of them are downright nuts. But, in a country with free speech, that is par for the course.” says http://www.davidrisley.com/2009/08/28/free-speech-infringement/ and I agree wholeheartedly.

I said it before,” What’s a good defense, if you don’t have a good offense like Big Brother collecting personal data?” Now having the potential to just shut it all down as the President deems, dooms us to another step up the socialism ladder.   Pulling the plug on grandpa and the Internet in the same presidency redefines liberty and tyranny.

Never mind protecting our electric grids, air traffic control systems, water supply systems from cyber attack.  Big Brother, President Obama and the White House blog  is concentrating on monitoring the right to free speech in the blogosphere…

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov. sourced at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/

So is it legal?  The Privacy Act of 1974 courtesy of  Nixon’s Watergate scandal prohibits any federal agency from maintaining records on individuals exercising their right to free speech.

“The White House is in bit of a conundrum because of this privacy statute that prohibits the White House from collecting data and storing it on people who disagree with it,” Judge Andrew Napolitano, a FOX News analyst, said Friday.  “There’s also a statute that requires the White House to retain all communications that it receives. It can’t try to rewrite history by pretending it didn’t receive anything,” he said.

Ah, lest we not forget that America is under a Public Health Emergency thanks to H1N1 Swine Flu, which opens another can of worms that could erode private citizens rights. 

The threat and potential for mandatory mass inoculations and martial law would certainly give the Administration latitude to collect whatever information it deems necessary in the interest of national security. 

The advent of Internet attacks — especially those suspected of being directed by nations, not hackers — has given rise to a new term inside the Pentagon and the National Security Agency: “hybrid warfare.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/us/28cyber.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=technology

Is cyberwar and hybrid warfare covered by the War Powers Act? 

Believe you me it is not just the government who wants to know if you are in disagreement or have something of value stored on your computer, “The experts are sure of only one thing: whenever information is vulnerable and has significant monetary or intelligence value, it is only a matter of time until someone tries to steal it.” http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hackers-can-steal-from-reflections

“In the 1960s American military scientists began studying the radio waves given off by computer monitors and launched a program, code-named “Tempest,” to develop shielding techniques that are used to this day in sensitive government and banking computer systems…..Similarly, commonplace radio surveillance equipment can pick up keystrokes as they are typed on a keyboard in a different room”

What’s a good defense, if you don’t have a good offense like Big Brother collecting personal data? 

When you die, and having duly paid your death tax, your personal data will live in infamy- whether you like it or not and whether it is legal or not. 

related post http://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/white-house-informant-report-fishy-things-on-health-care/

We just had our first ever “non-family” babysitter for our little guy the other day.  They hit it off great and had a wonderful time by all accounts.  The babysitter was at our place for only a couple hours while our son was awake and the rest of the time he was napping.  Now when I was a babysitter, all those many years ago, it was standard for parents to let us watch TV after kids went to bed.  These days of course, the babysitters want to go online and IM their friends, check their MySpace pages, and so on.

My husband and I were very comfortable allowing our sitter access to our “guest” login on the computer because we have Omni’s PC Monitoring Software installed on our computer.  We left the house confident that any activity she did on our computer was monitored and every keystroke recorded, for our review later  if necessary.  We told her we have the PC Monitoring software, of course; full disclosure is key in our home.   We also told her (and her parents) about the Parental Controls software we have that blocks inappropriate websites.  Of course, she’s not the sort of kid to go to those sites anyway, but at least she (and her parents) knew that nothing inappropriate would come up on the computer while she was at our home.

And y’know, when we were kids, some sitters would invite boyfriends over to “hang out” for a while, taking full advantage of the lack of parental supervision at a home.  Can you imagine these days what they might try to pull up on your computer when you’re not there, without any supervision?  When I was little, I walked in on a babysitter making out with a boyfriend–I would be horrified if my son walked in on a sitter watching porn on the computer.  OmniVision PC Monitoring and OmniGuard Parental Controls add such a great level of security to your computer that you can rest easy, knowing that your sitter cannot  use your computer to view inappropriate content, and that your children won’t accidentally see it either.

I was talking to a friend the other night; she is a coach, a teacher and a mom.  During the conversation I told her about Omni Parental Controls and PC Monitoring.  I told her how I use the Parental Controls software to block inappropriate websites that I don’t want my kids to see and how I can view where my kids had been on line with the PC Monitoring software.  She then told me about a fellow coach who cared about his players, not just about how they did in the game, but about them as people.  He wanted them to grow into responsible adults.   He was very aware of the dangers of High School, the parties the drinking and other behaviors that are so attractive to kids, but that are so dangerous.  He took the time to keep an eye on their MySpace pages, to know what was going on in their lives.  Not only could he council them when they were hurting from a break up, but he was also aware of any parties or other dangerous situations that his girls maybe involved in.  That is the kind of coach I want for my kids.  One who cares about them and is willing to adapt to the ever changing way kids communicate.

With Omni Parental Controls and PC Monitoring, I can see the web sites my kids visit, block dangerous sites, and learn more about their interests by visiting the sites they have been to.  I want to be a great mom, and that is not easy.  Sometimes it is best to meet them in their world and build our relationship from there.  Below is a screen shot that I took of the OmniVision PC Monitoring report screen — this is what it looks like when I login and want to see what sites my kids have been on during the day.  OmniVision is SO easy to use, and gives me total details.  I love it!

OmniVision PC Monitoring Data Report Screen Shot

Despite reports of the various problems in China, the country’s economy continues to grow, serving as an enticing target to local and foreign entities wanting to expand there.

Skyline of Shanghai, China's largest city and mainland China's business center.

The country is positioned to surpass Japan as the world’s second largest economy (after the recession-stricken U.S. economy) at the end of this year, according to Tom Rauch of the Associated Press.

Although the use of the Internet and various forms of social media are heavily censored and monitored, Internet and mobile phone use in China is on the rise. This provides organizations willing to make some investment in social media as part of their strategy with plenty of opportunity to make inroads into the Chinese market.

Much like in the U.S. market, being informed, being authentic and engaging in conversation would serve a company well. But to successfully carry out a social media campaign in China, companies should also recognize the differences in the Chinese market, and tailor their strategies and choices of social media tools to the conditions of that market.

In a recent article, Forbes stated that Chinese Internet users, also known as netizens, spend nearly two billion hours online each week, compared to 129 million hours per week for users in the United States. These numbers reflect only a limited portion of the population, not a majority, so the growth could be significantly higher in years to come.

The 298 million people online only account for 23 percent of the Chinese population and may not offer the greatest reach cities beyond a certain tier, according to Sam Flemming, CEO and co-founder of CIC, a leading Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) Research and Consulting firm in China.

Despite the small percentage, for those on the web, it is indeed a primary media, according to Flemming.

“Numerous studies have suggested that Chinese netizens spend upwards of twice the amount of time online as they do watching TV,” Flemming wrote. “Compared to traditional media, digital is so much more varied, exciting and open. It serves the primary platform for consumers to find information, be entertained and socialize: 81.5% of netizens get their news online and … QQ, China’s leading social internet platform, is bigger than Facebook.”

Social networking site QQ claims to have had more than 200 million monthly active users in January 2009.

Flemming added that China has the most mobile phones in the world, and more people there access the Internet via mobile phone than other methods (they often access a site trough their phones before accessing via computer). According to Forbes, 400 million use cell phones in China, with over 6.1 million mobile users connecting online.

[The Forbes numbers are attributed to Dr. Charles Zhang, chairman and CEO of Beijing-based Sohu.com, an Internet company. The numbers are higher than those reported by other organizations, such as the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). According to Forbes, Zhang’s internal research revealed that Chinese Internet users numbered over 150 million (possibly up to 200 million) and that Sohu.com was in the top five most trafficked sites in the world. Zhang attributed the discrepancy and “lower-than-accurate” CNNIC numbers to the organization’s polling methodology (calling land lines).
“Young people do not use fixed line phones. They all have mobile phones,” Zhang said.]

Blogger Enid Burns quoted Netpop Research President John Crandall’s suggestion that businesses create unique experiences tailored to both the Web and mobile Web.

“It’s more important to do so now more than ever, and provide them [mobile users] with that experience that is tailored to that device, because it might be their first experience to the brand,” Crandall said. “Then bring them back to the PC, through the consistent login experience, a consistent branding experience, offering more marketing abilities through the computer, because the computer may offer more marketing real estate than the mobile device.”
Although the Chinese are using applications like Facebook and Twitter, and their equivalent or similar Chinese counterparts, Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) seem to be the most widely used form of social media. In 2008, there were over 3 billion registered BBS users in China. (A user may register on multiple forums.)

Although the relatively low Internet penetration rate, Flemming said, social participation is very high, with “more bloggers (162 million) and more places online to be social than any other market in the world.”

According to recent statistics on Internet use published by Shanghaiist, blogging is about five times more popular in China than in the U.S. Their report also states that the typical Chinese Internet user is likely to simultaneously listen to music online and use an instant messaging service.

Flemming had some recommendations to connect with the online community in China. Loosely paraphrased and augmented, they include the following:

Find out who’s talking and what they are talking about. Flemming wrote that to build connections, communicators must conduct a “community audit”, similar to a media audit. The community audit involves a systematic mapping out of key blogs, BBS forums, QQ groups and other community channels for the brand and its industry. As a result of conducting this audit, businesses gain insight into the communities and their culture, Flemming stated—including conversation topics, which topics are the most sticky or talked about, how topics are handled and how different groups (e.g., teenagers) are discussing them.

Contribute value to the community. By gaining insight into the various communities, marketers can identify opportunities to reach out and connect with the communities on another level. Flemming mentioned sponsorship of “fubai” or offline meet-ups by companies like Crocs as one example.

Connect with “efluencers”. Just like a business person maintains mutually beneficial relationships with traditional business contacts, marketers must also remember to maintain similar relationships with “effluencers”, or influencers.

Find your voice and use it. Engage consumers by listening and communicating with them online, not just in times of crisis, but also as a regular activity, such as providing advice on a specific topic or recommendations on the use of the company’s products. In discussing the challenge faced by computer manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo “is to find an authentic voice to talk back and participate in the conversation,” Flemming said. He added that Dell has multiple blogs, including one in Chinese, along with microblogging accounts on Twitter and the Chinese site Fanfou. (The latter was not available at the time this post was published.)

The Great Wall of China. Government efforts to monitor and censor the Internet are sometimes referred to as "the Great Firewall of China". Photo credit: National Geographic

Marketers should also remember that, with the high engagement and high participation also comes significant government monitoring and censorship.

As evidenced earlier this month after the Xinjiang riots, the government can swiftly block or limit Internet and cell phone access as a means to control information flow to and from all or part of the country.

Disturbing though these practices might be, the situation is not likely to change any time soon, so marketers should remember that:

• Social media should be treated as an element of their overall strategy (not the strategy)
• Relationships should always be developed and maintained
• Offline relationships are also valuable and can be key to maintaining continuity of operations in case of an online outage

OmniVision PC Monitoring Software records EVERY keystroke, every email viewed, and every website visited on the target computer.   Not only does OmniVision record that data, but it automatically stores the data in a secure online account  and you have the ability to print hard copies or download files that show all activity in full detail.

Why is that important?  Well, maybe you are involved in a legal battle because a former boyfriend is stalking or harassing you online and you need proof .  If you have OmniVision PC Monitoring Software installed on your computer, you’ll be able to print out hard copies of the harassing emails, Facebook posts, or instant messages–even days after the events actually happened.   And since the reports are recorded by a third party monitoring system, you won’t be as vulnerable to charges from the opposition that you doctored or “made-up” the data, which is great if you need support for a legal battle.

Perhaps you need documentation for your divorce proceedings to prove that your spouse cheated on you.  Or maybe you need to prove that your spouse moved funds to a private account in an effort to “hide” the money and reduce their alimony or child support requirements.  If you are monitoring their activity with OmniVision PC Monitoring Software, you’ll have detailed reports documenting everything they do on the target computer–at your fingertips.  The list goes on….

Need to confront a loved one about an internet porn addiction?  They can deny it all they want until confronted with reports from our PC Monitoring Software that detail their addiction.   We’ve had several testimonials that once the loved one sees the detailed evidence of their addiction in front of them it serves as a wake-up call and is the first step towards admitting that they have a problem.

The same goes for a teen who you fear may have started using drugs or alcohol… With OmniVision PC Monitoring Software you can not only discover the truth, but use your child’s emails, instant messages, or other online conversations as evidence when you confront them and try to turn their life around.

To learn more about OmniVision PC Monitoring Software, visit us at: OmniVision PC Monitoring Software.

The OmniGuard Parental Controls blocking software is my favorite.  I trust my kids, but accidents happen and sometimes harmless searches can very quickly become … well, something to worry about.  I know my kids are safe online.

OmniGuard Parental Controls is really easy to use, just point and click.  In just a few minutes I have caught up on the computer’s activity for the day!

Momni

My name is Karen; my kids call me Momni (mom-omni) That must be how much time I spend on my Omni site!

I love knowing what is going on-on line, I can check to see what web-sites are visited, what the kids are chatting about, and know that the sites I don’t want them visiting are blocked!

What’s Rick Scott up to by supporting suppressive regimes? 

Here we are putting our soldiers in high risk areas with fanatical social conservative terrorists, and they terrorize in order to suppress freedoms of the people through religious dogma.  Yet we have people like this guy supporting these same regimes?  

What’s going on here?  We should just bring our soldiers home!  People suppressing information creates an environment of distrust.  People in those regimes don’t know us and we don’t know them, really. 

Rick Scott Tied To Internet Censorship In Iran And Saudi Arabia

A report released on Tuesday calls out former hospital CEO Rick Scott for sitting on the board of a company used by Saudi Arabia and Iran to suppress Internet access. In recent months, Scott has become the most high-profile conservative activist working to oppose the health care reforms backed by the Obama administration.

The newly formed organization Media Matters Action Network released a document on Tuesday detailing Scott’s links to the Internet monitoring company Secure Computing, and the use of that company’s software by some of the world’s most oppressive regimes.

The findings add another politically provocative element to the battle over health care reform. While officials with Secure Computing did not immediately return requests for information on Scott’s work or compensation, the optics could be problematic. Scott has pledged to spend more than $5 million of his own money to build resistance to greater government involvement in the health care industry. Where that money comes from changes the perception of his opposition.

Scott secured his board position in early 2006 after the company for which he previously worked — CyberGuard — was bought by Secure Computing for $295 million. According to Hoovers.com, Scott received $35,000 per year for serving on Secure Computing’s board. He also received a half share of Secure stock and $2.73 for each CyberGuard share that was purchased. According to the company’s website he remains in his Secure Computing post, though an SEC filing says he left in November 2008.

Faculty, administrators and students often use the IT systems of educational institutions to gain access to the Internet, to visit Web sites and to send and receive emails. That is all well and good. The question arises, though, as to how much educational institutions should monitor the use of such IT systems.

Educational institutions do have an interest in ensuring that their IT systems are used properly and for legitimate purposes. For example, educational institutions do not want their IT systems to be used by faculty to allow intellectual property belonging to the institutions to be disseminated to the outside world, and they do not want students and others associated with the institutions to engage in improper speech that defames others. Monitoring of IT systems can deter such behavior and can root out problems.

Schools have an interest in making sure their IT systems are used properly, says Eric Sinrod

Furthermore, educational institutions want to do their best to avoid having viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other malware from infecting their systems, Monitoring potentially could enable IT administrators to ascertain whether system users are taking steps to avoid practices that could lead to infection from such sources.

Still, educational institutions are considered bastions of freethinking and speech. Potential monitoring of communications on IT systems of educational institutions could be perceived as possibly undermining the higher mission of the institutions.

So, what are educational institutions to do? Should they not require users of their IT systems to agree to monitoring of user communications on their systems? Should they provide for monitoring only under certain circumstances? Or, should they allow for monitoring whenever they deem appropriate?

This author believes that educational institutions really should be able to monitor the use of their IT systems. Educational institutions, for the reasons expressed above, truly to have valid interests in proper use of their IT systems. Indeed, improper use of the systems could cause disruption or damage to the systems themselves, and potentially could subject the institutions to legal liability.

The next question is how far and wide should be the scope of the potential monitoring. One approach could be that educational institutions would only monitor communications on their IT systems if they had something akin to “probable cause” to believe that particular users are engaging in improper conduct.

This standard can create ambiguity, however. Plus, if educational institutions do not have full consent to monitor, they might run afoul of the law if they choose to monitor when it is later determined that they did not have sufficient cause. Moreover, the very ability of educational institutions to be able to monitor whenever they deem appropriate could deter users from engaging in improper conduct.

At the end of the day, this author believes that educational institutions should require users of their IT systems to agree explicitly that the institutions can monitor their IT systems whenever the institutions decide that such monitoring is appropriate.

It is true that at first blush this may cause some users to believe that Orwell’s Big Brother has arrived in the form of the IT administrators of educational institutions. But even with such general consent to monitoring, the truth of the matter is that the institutions do not have unlimited resources, and they generally will not have the time, capacity or interest to engage in so-called fishing expeditions. They will be more interested in ferreting out true problems, even though users have given consent for general monitoring.

More importantly, users simply should engage in proper communications on educational institution IT systems. If they do that, they will not have to worry about anything that unlikely monitoring would reveal.

This column was written by Eric Sinrod, an attorney at Duane Morris and a quest blogger at TechPulse 360. It was originally published at FindLaw.com.

Readings 6

“On the Record, All the Time”

This article on life-blog creeped me out a bit and made me think of what the world and technology is really coming to. I found it a bit uncomfortable that this researcher walked around with a recorder around his neck for such a long amount of time and a sign saying our conversation is being recorded. I know if someone came up to me with that around his neck and started to talk to me I would walk away without saying anything and think he was nuts. Why is this? Maybe because I feel like our lives should be private. When I am talking to someone I might say things I do not want anyone else to hear. I feel like the idea of life-blogging through audio recording is an invasion of privacy to the people around you and of the law itself. Another reason I am anti-life blogging is because what if something your experienced was not something you want to remember. The author discusses how his child was injured and how he could not even listen back to the tape. Some memories just should not be remembered. I can think of many things I am glad I don’t have recorded, probably more than I wish I did! It also breaches the law of consent. If we are recording everything all the time, including people in the public, how can we be so sure they would allow it? I can see how this can be argued through people taking videos and pictures, and I really don’t have an answer to how it is different and I think it could be a very questionable topic. My final point is that through life-blogging, people could have the tendency to feel like they are “on stage” or have to act a certain way or say certain things. When people are being monitored they act different. I think life-blogging could turn us into programed computers and make us feel like we can not act ourselves either because of embarrassment, shyness, or nervousness.

1. How do you feel about wearing a tape recorder around your neck all the time to record memories and discussions in your life?

2. If someone came up to you with a recorder around their neck and a sign that said “our conversation will be recorded, do you think you would act in a different way than you normally would? Why or why not?

“Facebook’s Beacon Just the Tip of the Privacy Iceberg”

Like the first article, I found this article informative, but at the same time a bit “creepy”. I will be honest and say I really had no idea that on Facebook our “clicking” on link are monitored. It makes me feel a bit uneasy to realize that people are monitoring what I do on certain websites. It makes me think how many websites do companies really do this for? I am starting to believe its a lot more than we think. It also makes me question if we signed up for these sites, if we signed an agreement stating our information will be constantly monitored by someone. We all have done it before: skipped the 5 paragraph essay on the terms for a website and agreed to them. Could these terms have stated we will be constantly monitored? I understand the whole idea is a great marketing strategy and can tell a lot about target market behaviors and preferences, but I do believe it is an infringement of privacy. At the same time, I also believe it is the Internet, and everything we do could and probably is constantly monitored by some “greater being”. This article made that belief more evident to me and acted as a reminder. The internet could be a more dangerous tool than we think and many things can be going on that we don’t even know about.

1. Were you aware that when we click on links and ads for Facebook our activity is being monitored?

2. Do you think this is an invasion of privacy, a good marketing research strategy, or both?

Following up on my previous post about Spector and other Internet-monitoring software, this one will discuss a potentially better use for this new technology.  Some parents have come up with the idea of installing the software on their children’s computers as a time-management teaching tool.  The reasoning goes that the detailed feedback the software provides will allow kids to see just how much time they’re spending (read:  wasting) on various Internet-related activities (surfing, chatting, and so on).

At first glance, this use of the spyware appears to have some merit.  Today’s students are busy and often complain about not having enough time to do all the things their schedules necessitate—including, for many, massive amounts of homework.  At the same time, kids may truly be unaware of how many hours per day their on-line activities eat up.  Viewing the software’s records can be a revelation and may indeed inspire some students to cut back.

The problem is, parents’ motivation behind installing the software ostensibly for this purpose may not be as pure as it initially seems, even to themselves.  Particularly with uncommunicative teenagers, the software offers parents a window into their children’s “secret lives,” and the temptation will be very strong to peer through the glass—to monitor, or spy on, what exactly their kids have been doing on line. 

Moreover, the sort of time-management feedback the software can provide is likely to have limited use.  Although some teens might, just out of curiosity, be open to monitoring their on-line time for a day or two, few will choose to continue doing so over an extended period to see whether their time-management skills are improving.  On the contrary, most will likely see through this attempt (however well-intentioned) to “help” them and refuse to participate in the endeavor.

So if you’ve been considering using Internet-monitoring software as a time-management teaching tool, should you abandon the idea?  Not necessarily.  If you can promise yourself and your child that you won’t look at the software’s detailed records—in other words, that what your child does on line will remain private—and if you have the money to invest in what is almost certain to be a very short-lived time-management lesson for your child, then going ahead and installing the software may not be problematic.  Just be sure to think long and hard beforehand about whether you’ll really be able to resist opening up that Pandora’s box once it’s there.

Many parents these days are concerned—with good reason—about their children’s use of the Internet.  Setting and enforcing limits is a pervasive problem, one that various companies have rushed to provide solutions for in the form of Internet-monitoring and surveillance (“spy”) software.

One company, SpectorSoft, has created a product for PCs called Spector.  According to an ad on SpectorSoft’s website, with Spector “you’ll be able to SEE EXACTLY what your kids have been doing on the PC and Internet.”  Spector takes hundreds of snapshots of a computer screen every hour, providing a record of all screens, chat conversations, e-mail viewed and sent, keystrokes typed, and so on.

If you’re worried about your child’s Internet use, installing Spector or other similar software can sound like the perfect plan.  But doing so, either openly or covertly, brings up a host of other issues.  Perhaps most obvious is the question of privacy:  Unless your child figures out a hack (which can and does happen with any Internet-monitoring software), you’ll be able to see everything he or she does on line—at least on this one computer.

That may sound great in theory; in practice, though, you’ll not only have invaded your child’s privacy but also sent a clear message, if only to yourself, that you don’t trust your child.  You may well have good reasons not to, but monitoring his or her computer won’t solve that problem and may in fact exacerbate it.

And although in the first day or two of the software’s installation you could learn whether or not your fears have been justified, ultimately you won’t be able to monitor your child’s use of computers at libraries, friends’ houses, or elsewhere.  So recording every move on a home computer has limited utility.

A better solution might be to have a serious conversation with your child about Internet use in which you outline strict consequences for inappropriate activities.  These consequences should include restricting the child’s access to the computer—and, if necessary, removing it from the home altogether.

We install and service all of our own camera monitoring.  Our systems are perfect for you residence and/or commercial buildings.  We have high power pan tilt zoom cameras, fixed cameras and hidden cameras.  Night vision with the need for special lighting and Internet access systems where you can monitor and control you cameras from the other side of the world. 

We have the staff and resources to provide you with all of your security needs. Contact us today to make an appointment for a full video monitoring analysis or quote for your facility or home.

The information in this blog is straight from the horse’s mouth.

Assuming your horse is named Google.

WWGD?

In this case those initials stand for What Would Google Do?

When it comes to search engine optimization this is a pretty important question.

Well now Google has made it easy for you. In fact, they tell you exactly what to do.

Take a look at their Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Of course everyone’s not sold on Google’s largess.

Blog critics abound.

So you might be interested in reading this post.

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Start Guide and Why It’s Bad for Innovation

But you know what they say… critics are like… uhm, search engine rankings… everyone has one.

Use of keywords for search optimization and search engine optimization is one of the most talked about and least understood aspects of internet marketing and PR strategies.

One of the keys to keywords, so to speak, is to pick them BEFORE you write your article or blog NOT AFTER.

Let’s take my previous post about internet & web monitoring as an example.

Instead of writing the article and then throwing in every keyword phrase I could think of, I did a little research and picked out two keyword phrases I wanted to concentrate on.

You’ll find them both in the title of the blog posting and in the first paragraph. They are “internet monitoring” and “web monitoring.” It’s generally agreed that the use of keywords in your title and keyword metadata does little good.

My research process consisted of using Google’s free keyword suggestion tool. Why not use the tool of the search engine you’re trying to crack. Plus, it’s free.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

For internet monitoring I found the search volume for October was 49,500 queries. For web monitoring it was 22,200 queries.

FYI, my search began with what I thought would be the most relevant keyword phrase, “brand monitoring.”

That phrase showed a whopping 720 queries for October. Shows how much I know. With a few more tries I settled on the two I wound up using.

My overall strategy was to pick keyword phrases that had a reasonable chance of getting my post into the top twenty of Google’s search results. With “only” 49,500 and 22,200 queries respectively, the odds aren’t as stacked against me.

Those were the keywords I used in my blog post. I used several other less searched for keywords in my tags. Just two of them. “Monitoring internet activity” (590 queries) and “internet monitoring tool” (320 queries).

So my odds of getting in the top 20 Google listing for those keyword phrases is pretty good.

Especially if the content of my blog post is educational and informative.

As for keywords in the title and content of this blog post I picked two big ones, “search optimization” and “search engine optimization” with about 450,000 queries each. Realistically I don’t have much of a chance of getting into the top twenty of Google for those two.

But the other two I used, “search engine optimization tool” and “search engine optimization tools”, with only 2,400 and 2.900 queries respectively, have a much better shot.

So my rule of thumb advice for keywords would be to get as specific as you can with them. The use of these less popular keyword is called “long tail marketing.” Think of it like a lottery. Your chances of “winning” (making a sale) is much better with odds of 1 in 500 than 1 in 500,000.

Make sense?

Internet monitoring is a necessary part of having internet service. Whether you allow your children to surf the web or if you have the need to monitor employees, effective programs can be used to help you to do this simply. There are many aspects that can be monitored and the results can be delivered to you privately. No one needs to know that you are using internet monitoring technologies either.

There are many options when it comes to internet monitoring. No matter what your need is in these products, you can expect to use high tech gadgets and software. But, they are simplistic to use. Many software programs that monitor internet usage will tell you such things as how long the individual was online as well as what websites they visited, who they chatted with in instant messages, as well as anything that they input into the web. Emails can be tracked as well as a number of other things.

Why should you use internet monitoring? If you are not sure your employees are using their time on the job for job related tasks, this can help you know for sure. If you are unsure of who your spouse is chatting with at night, consider the use of these monitoring solutions. Do you know if someone is stalking your child as they play games on the web? If they use instant message software, find out who they are talking to and what they are saying. Internet monitoring is really a necessary part of keeping people safe and your business under control. Effective internet monitoring software products can be purchased and installed quickly and discreetly. Be in the know.

There are also many information portals now devoted to the subject and we recommend reading about it at one of these. Try googling for “internet monitoring” and you will be surprised by the abundance of information on the subject. Alternatively you may try looking on Yahoo, MSN or even a decent directory site, all are good sources of this information.

How To Keep An Eyeball On Yourself, Your Clients, Your Competitors, Your Friends, Your Enemies… Well, You Get The Idea.

The bottom line is the more information you have, the more successful your PR and marketing efforts will be!